Asphalt paving cost

[vtsnowedin]

I'm not trying to fight; just worked for 4.5 years as a county engineering inspector, inspecting roads and road construction.

I'm not fighting just talking. I started working for the NH DOT in 1975 and retired from them in 2006. I started out as a soil test technician and concrete plant inspector and ended up as a contract administrator doing interstate rehabilitation contracts which were primarily paving jobs. I had jobs with as much as a hundred miles of secondary road resurfacing using a sand mix placed at just 300 tons per mile (3/8" nominal depth). Specs in Florida are a lot different From New England due to the difference in the weather and local soils and aggregate availability as well as a good dose of politics on the state and Federal level. The super pave specs were developed and modified with as much politics as science applied at the federal level.
I've seen several things come and go as they came in or out of political fashion. It's sort of like hemlines on skirts.
In New England we would never consider adding any clay above sub grade or use any rock that had an LA wear of more then 50 percent. There is good hard (20 %LA wear) rock in almost every town so there is no point in using soft or rotten rock for anything except fills four feet or more below finished grade.
Florida specs work fine in Florida and I do understand how clay can be beneficial with the sands your mixing it with but the Asphalt paving industry has had a great success promoting thick layers of pavement were thicker layers of properly constructed base courses would have been cheaper and more durable. The New England states have drunk the koolaid as well pushed from the Federal level so there isn't any yours is better then mine to point to.

 

[Buppies]

Superpave is a European mix design that we tried to make better with limited success. Each area of the country has different conditions therefore different ways to construct their roads.

The most interesting thing here is for driveways there is no spec on how much stone what type of asphalt etc. basically left up to paver and home owner must educate themselves or in reality buyer beware

In our area if stone base is not correct depth asphalt will fail whether 2in or 4in makes no difference

 

[vtsnowedin]

In our area if stone base is not correct depth asphalt will fail whether 2in or 4in makes no difference

It is like the paving is the shingles on your roof. If the rafters and plywood are rotten adding another layer of shingles will cover up but not solve the problem.

 

[paulharvey]

It is like the paving is the shingles on your roof. If the rafters and plywood are rotten adding another layer of shingles will cover up but not solve the problem.

I would rather have a driveway paved with a box blade tractor and a Wacker packer on good base; the the best looking asphalt on crap base.

 

[paulharvey]

Ok, forget theory; to the OP: I would ask the asphalt guy a couple things; ask him how many pounds per square yard of asphalt he wants to lay; and if it's Marshall mix or super pave. If he goes ...ummm..... RUN! He sounds like one of these seal coat outfits who doesn't have any idea what's he's doing.

The answer is between 214-220 lbs per square yard. Now, a common thing guys try to do is call it 100 #/in/Sq yard; that's not right, never has, never will; but that's 10% savings on material.

 

[Egon]

For the home owner driveway type jobs knowing the source plant might be a determining factor. Those plants having to deliver on spec material to a contracting entity may give you a better product than an unregulated plant that is handling a spot market.

 

[riptides]

Superpave is a European mix design that we tried to make better with limited success. Each area of the country has different conditions therefore different ways to construct their roads.

The most interesting thing here is for driveways there is no spec on how much stone what type of asphalt etc. basically left up to paver and home owner must educate themselves or in reality buyer beware

In our area if stone base is not correct depth asphalt will fail whether 2in or 4in makes no difference

Really agree with education. We cut a new driveway into one of our properties over ten years ago with the possible future intention of paving. I figured time and travel would get the base established and I would spend less on base establishment if the idea ever came to fruition.

 

[paulharvey]

Really agree with education. We cut a new driveway into one of our properties over ten years ago with the possible future intention of paving. I figured time and travel would get the base established and I would spend less on base establishment if the idea ever came to fruition.

For the OP and you; a paving outfit may/probably will refuse to warranty the work with a base they didn't put in, or an unknown quality.


EDIT; I should say that problems aren't unique to asphalt; I'm very big on asphalt. It's a long lasting, affordable driveway/road(affordable in the context of $10k driveways and $3.5M roads). 6" of concrete poured with WWF will run. $40-50/Sq yard (large project price) and if poured over wet, spongy ground will fail quickly too.

There simply is no cheap material that can be placed on junk loose soils that will last. If there was, everyone would be using it

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

The heavy oil field 18 wheelers have really torn up the roads down here in Texas. Just like back in 1981. Only the concrete super highways seem to hold up decently against their weight.

 

[vtsnowedin]

The heavy oil field 18 wheelers have really torn up the roads down here in Texas. Just like back in 1981. Only the concrete super highways seem to hold up decently against their weight.

If your going to use concrete you need a very strong well drained base under it. Done right it can last for thirty years or more. Asphalt in hot countries is hard to get more then fifteen years out of under heavy truck traffic as they will roll in ruts to it in the summer when the asphalt softens in the sunlight. Once the ruts are more then an inch deep they start holding rainwater and cause a hydroplaning hazard and you need to overlay or mill out and repave. There are advantages and disadvantages to both types.